


You May be Right (I May be Crazy)

by karrenia_rune



Category: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, Gen, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 12:45:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4101457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ares is stuck as a mortal for twenty four hours and Hercules and Iolaus have no choice but to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You May be Right (I May be Crazy)

Disclaimer: Hercules: the Legendary Journeys belong to their creators and Producers. They are not mine.  
Note: Written for the Live Journal based community Small Fandoms Fest Round 17  
The title comes from the Billy Joel song.

"You May be Right (I may be crazy, but you wouldn't want me any other way")

 

He’d been sitting on a boulder that had been wedged half-in and half-out of the green-blue waters of a lake for several hours, enjoying the play of sunlight on the waters and every now and again hurling a rock into the water in order to watch the ripples they created when they disturbed the surface of the water.  
He liked going fishing; he liked being outdoors, and liked it even more whenever he could cajole his best friend, Hercules into joining him.  
Hercules was out somewhere fetching more wood for the fire so Iolaus had the leisure to contemplate whether or not he would ever manage to catch something for the cook pot and was just about to give it up as a run of bad luck on the sandbar when his line went taught and the creature on the other end began to pull and yank the line every which way. Ialous grinned, this wanted he’d been waiting for, he stood up and tucked back. 

The more he yanked one way, the more it the fish yanked the other, the fibers of the line rubbing the skin of his palms red and raw, when the line with whatever was caught on the end of end popping out of his hands, and out of the water with a soaking wet splash. 

Iolaus had been thrust backward to land in a tangle of willows and cattails but managed to extricate himself long enough to come see what he had caught. Rubbing water out of his eyes and smoothing back his tousled blonde hair out of his eyes, he realized that he hadn’t caught a fish, he’d caught a man. 

Not just any man, but a very drenched and rather bedraggled Ares, none other than the God of War.

Ares stood up and tried to use every inch of his rather commanding height to look fierce. Iaolus had seen him use this particular tactic before and was not impressed. 

“Well, what were you doing swimming fully dressed in a lake?”

“I wasn’t,” Ares began. 

Just then Hercules arrived with an arm-load of kindling.

“What’s going on here?”

“You tell me, I fished this guy out of the drink.”

“It’s not what you think” Ares muttered, and do you suppose if we could continue this discussion over a hot fire?”

Hercules regarded Ares, black leather vest, dark black hair hanging lank and wringing wet down to his broad shoulders, and finally nodded. “Come on, then, to our campsite.”

Once situated around the campfire, he leaned forward and said, “So, what are you up to?”

“Do I have to be up to something?” Ares replied.

“You usually are, and it usually means trouble for Iaolous and me,” Hercules said.

“Well,” Ares hedged. “Now that we come to the fact of the matter, I am finding that this is much more difficult than I had imagined it would be.”

“Yeah, so?” Iolaus coaxed.

“Hercules, I require your help,” Ares replied.

“My help? With what?”

“Does he have to be here?” Ares exclaimed. “I would prefer to explain this without the distraction of comments from the peanut gallery. No offense.”

“How could I possibly take offense at that,” exclaimed Iolaus.

Hercules moved forward so that he was partly in between the two other men, “Take it easy. “Look, Ares, whatever it was that you have to say me, you can tell us both. If you want my help, then it’s a package deal. Got it?”  
Ares nodded. “Very well, then. It would seem that I became rather overzealous in Thrace a while back and word of got back to my mother.”

“Hera, what does she have to do with this?” Hercules asked.

“A whole lot, if you will hear me out,” Ares replied.

“To make a long story short, consequences of my actions Hera convinced the Fates to temporarily condemn to better understand what it is like to be mortal.”

“Whoa” Iolaus exclaimed, “that’s some serious mojo! So, you’re mortal now?”

“Only for one solar cycle, but I need your help. The terms of the geas or whatever you care to call it are that I need to perform good deeds for the benefit of others besides myself.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard, what with your charming personality,” Hercules remarked.

Ares nodded, and if he noted the subtle dig inherent in the remark, he chooses not to comment on it. “Yes, but that’s the thing, “as much as it galls me to say this, Hercules, for once that do good for others will actually come in handy.”

“Only one day?” Hercules said, thinking it over. “I can manage that.”  
***  
The next day, Ares was flat on his back repairing the broken wagon wheel of a tinker whose dray cart had broken down on the way to Thebes. The day was hot and dusty and the legs of his trousers were caked with dust, but he finished repairing the damn thing with a minimum of fuss, or a little bit of swearing.

At a farm along the way, they helped the farmer and his sons plow a row of wheat and corn, and lay down the spring peas. If he complained about having to do more of his share of the work than the others, he only muttered under his breath about it. 

When he thought that no one was looking, Ares, pitched the yoke that was normally used by oxen to plow the fields and heaved it over his own shoulders. Partly he did so, out of spite. He had seen Hercules do it, and being temporarily mortal, or not, he wanted to prove that he could do it, too.  
He did so partly, because, well, somehow it made him feel better about the whole situation, even if he could not have said afterward why it did so.  
Not one to over-think his emotional responses to things, Ares, merely shrugged it off and went back to the hayloft where the others were already asleep by the time he got back.  
**

Getting a brindled orange and white cat with a star patch on its forehead seemed a simple enough proposition. So Ares had clambered up the gnarled hawthorn tree, finding hand and footh0lds in the tough bark as he ascended as high as possibly could until the branches could no longer bear up his weight. 

He had no idea what one said to cats in order to get them to come, or in terms of endearment. “Herre, cat, here cat, come to Ares.”

The cat’s green eyes glittered in the late spring sunshine and its fur bristled up around its body. He reached out his hand and the cat began to inch its way forward

Below him the cat’s owner stood looking up with worry etched in every line of the old woman’s furrowed brow. “Here, Grimalkin, there’s a good kitty.”

When the cat was just within grabbing distance, he made a lunge for it, and missed. The force of the lunge sent the branch he’d been clinging to swaying to and fro alarmingly. He tried again, and this time that orange tabby sunk its needle-sharp kitten teeth into the skin of his thumb. “Damn! Ouch, rotten little bugger!”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Ares replied.

“I meant Grimalkin,” the old woman replied.

Ares tried again and the cat came forward tail wagging, apparently having decided that Ares was there to help not harm him. “Contrary little beast,” Ares muttered, grasping the cat in its middle and shimmying back downward, until he reached a wide enough section so he turn around and jump down.

“Here’s your cat, Ma’am,” Ares said as he handed it to her.

“Thank you, kind Sir,” oh thank you!” she gushed.

“You’re welcome.”

“Let’s go,” Ares said as soon as the old woman was out of ear-shot.

“I think he likes you,” Hercules remarked.

“Don’t even start with me, Hercules,” Ares growled.  
***  
“One solar cycle, is up.” Hercules observed, watching the sun set below the tree-line . 

“So, now what?” Iolaus asked.

“So, I wait until full dark and then see if the Fates decided if I’ve passed their test.”

The sun disappeared and the moon came out from behind a veil of clouds and a sudden crack of lightning made everyone gathered around the campfire start.

“I take it that would be a yes,” Hercules remarked.

“I concur,” Ares replied. “And Hercules, I could not have done it without you.”

“So what am I, chopped liver,” Iolaus complained, but only half-heartedly.

“I owe you one. I will have to make to certain to remember that the next time we meet.” Ares replied, and with that, he snapped his fingers and disappeared into the ether.

“He could have at least said thank you,” Hercules griped.

“Yeah, well, that might be asking too much, “Iolaus, “I meant this is Ares we’re talking about.”

“Yeah, well, but I still think that shepherding him about might actually have long-term benefits.”

“I guess, we’ll never know,” Hercules replied.


End file.
